The claimant had been taken under warrant to a mental hospital, but was found not to be suffering any mental illness. She complained that the arrest was unlawful, since the police officer had not been accompanied by the people named on the warrant. The House was asked whether a magistrate being requested to issue a warrant under the 1983 Act for a place of safety order, had the power to require the police officer executing the warrant to be accompanied by a named social worker or mental health worker.
Held: The intention under the 1983 Act had been to reduce the requirements for a warrant. The issue was not what was implied into the constable’s power to execute the warrant, but what was implied into the magistrate’s power to grant it. The attachment of the names was outdated, and was simply a nullity without vitiating the warrant. ‘Far from its being necessary to limit the powers granted by the warrant in this way, that purpose is more likely to be achieved if the powers are not cut down by insisting that named people be present, or by allowing the magistrate to impose other limitations, however ‘sensible’ they may seem at the time.’ The arrest had therefore been lawful though unaccompanied, and the action failed. The warrant request had been completed ineptly. There was nothing to indicate that the magistrate had applied his mind to the names shown on the request. The use of the procedure was severly circumscribed by the Act. The claimant’s distress was understandable, but his claim failed.
Lord Steyn, Lord Hutton, Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, Baroness Hale of Richmond, Lord Carswell
[2005] UKHL 32, Times 09-May-2005, [2006] 1 AC 23, [2005] 2 WLR 1114
Bailii, House of Lords
Mental Health Act 1983 135, Mental Deficiency Act 1913 15(2)
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Attorney General and Another v Great Eastern Railway Company HL 27-May-1880
An Act of Parliament authorised a company to construct a railway. Two other companies combined and contracted with the first to supply rolling stock. An injunction was brought to try to restrain this, saying that such a contract was not explicitly . .
Appeal From – Ward v The Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis and Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust CA 30-Jul-2003
The claimant sought damages for the circumstances of her having been taken into custody. A magistrate had issued a warrant to require her to be removed to a place of safety. The warrant named a social worker and doctor to accompany the officer. The . .
Cited – Bodden v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis 1990
A magistrate’s power to order the detention of someone who wilfully interrupted the proceedings of the court includes ‘all incidental powers necessary to enable the court to exercise the jurisdiction in a judicial manner’, and specifically in this . .
Cited – Winterwerp v The Netherlands ECHR 24-Oct-1979
A Dutch national detained in hospital complained that his detention had divested him of his capacity to administer his property, and thus there had been determination of his civil rights and obligations without the guarantee of a judicial procedure. . .
Cited by:
Appealed to – Ward v The Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis and Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust CA 30-Jul-2003
The claimant sought damages for the circumstances of her having been taken into custody. A magistrate had issued a warrant to require her to be removed to a place of safety. The warrant named a social worker and doctor to accompany the officer. The . .
Cited – Farstad Supply As v Enviroco Ltd SC 6-Apr-2011
The court was asked by the parties to a charterparty whether one of them is an ‘Affiliate’ of the charterer for the purposes of provisions in a charterparty by which both the owner and the charterer agreed to indemnify and hold each other harmless . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 04 August 2021; Ref: scu.224576
